The Book Of Shiirai
by Coordinator Kira Yamato
Summary: Wandering group of adventures, slowly amassing in numbers is called upon by the high council of the natural world to take on a quest to defeat a conquering army from hell, summoned by sociopathic mage. Some sickly sweet romance and general fighting
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

That's everything. Is that everything? Am I sure that's everything? I forget so many things whenever I pack for journeys, yes I think that's everything. Even having just convinced herself that she had everything, she began to double check the contents of her bag. Yes, that was everything. Finally, a trip where she wouldn't be forgetting something. She slung the bag over one shoulder and started off out of the pale grey room. As she passed by her mirror on the way out, she stopped to examine her reflection. At the moment she looked like a frazzle haired bookworm, white Blondie hair stuck out at odd angles and foofed out in others. She scoffed at herself and set the bag on the floor, determined to take just long enough to pick up her brush and smooth the wild untamed locks back into submission. She dusted off her clothing and threw back her shoulders to get a good look at herself. She smiled and ran over the finer points of her appearance. Her hair had always been a source of pride for her, long and white Blondie, generally tucked safely behind her gently sloping ears, or put up eloquently with sticks or pins. Her eyes were round and blue, and shone out of her pale face like sapphires. She adjusted the tight leather top she had bought shortly before agreeing to go on this little adventure with her dear friend. He had coaxed her into buying an outfit that would "weather the journey," a soft leather top that gathered her chest and made it quite apparent, that went with a pair of slick leather pants; the sort that were rolled up and hemmed a little below the knee. To make herself feel less like she was parading around in her underclothes she had indulged herself in a pair of lace-up boots to match the whole ensemble. So now, with her hair tamed and tucked back, she picked up her bag again and headed out of the room.

She had spent the better part of 16 years of her life in and out of towers and libraries with various and sundry scholars and mages and enchanters to learn everything from reading to art to magics, and only now after years of it, and quite a long break from it, did they deem her worthy enough to be called by the name people had for her. They would call her an enchantress, although the impatient friend with whom she was partaking of this journey with called her Shiirai. The same friend who was waiting annoyed at the base of the stairs that led from her home to the street with an all too familiar look on his face, a half effort scowl. He glowered up at her balefully with little effort, with eyes that matched her own, his hair an untidy mess of golden brown curls. "I told you to be ready when I got here so we could get on with it. You weren't even packed were you Shiirai?" She frowned savagely at him and rested a thin hand on her hip, letting one leg bend so that her hip jutted out oddly, the posture all women took up when they were about to grumble moodily or snap at someone. "I'll have you know, Jeremiah, that I was packed, but a girl has a right to make sure she's got everything. Honestly, you humans are so impatient. I'm beginning to think it's a defect in your blood." He rolled his eyes at her and languidly pushed himself off the railing of the staircase, but before they could exit her house, he had to track down his own bag.

There was a chill breeze in the air still, it was early enough in the city. The sun had barely begun to shade the sky pink with its warming rays, much less touch ground, so as to melt the ice that made the frail grass crunch underfoot. She shivered heavily and pulled her fluffy cloak tighter around her shoulders, silently cursing Jeremiah for wanting to take off so early in the day. At least he had had the decency to refrain from suggesting that they leave behind animal transportation. That she would have bandied him about the head with her sack for, she imagined. Halfway to the stable that her family kept their animals in, she handed over her bag to her friend, pulled up the hem of her cloak and sprinted to the doorway. She pried open the heavy doors and meandered inside where it was warm. There were all manner of unique and spirited animals inside, horses and cows and birds and bigger birds, birds that you could ride easily with no issue. One of these birds was hers, the only one of his kind that her family owned. He had the long eloquent neck and head of a peacock, complete with the shimmering blue green feathers and soft plumes from the top of his head, however, his body was well off the floor, on long ostrich like legs. His body was wide through the shoulders and went back to become much like a horses', with minor differences, one being that never did his plumage change to fur and he retained a peacocks' long flowing tail of feathers. His feet never became hooves; they kept themselves as the clawed and flat feet of a running bird.

He beat his wings noisily against his sides, long wings not made for flying that swept back to near his rear, and pulled himself up on his back legs, that did bend like a horses' as opposed to a birds'. She shushed him with a finger against his beak and smiled before she brought him out of his stall with very little coaxing, the promise of being ridden enough to excite and entice him out. She laid a plush sheepskin blanket over his back and fixed a lightweight saddle on him. It was long stated that these animals were most definitely a woman's animal, as they were not so sturdy as to be used as pack mules or war mounts. She fixed him with a sort of muzzle that wrapped around his head, but did not block his eyes, nor shut his mouth, and managed herself up onto his back. She lightly tapped the reins against the base of his neck to get him started out of the stable.

He walked out easily and came up alongside Jeremiah's horse gracefully. He had been trained around other, larger animals, and their presence didn't bother him in the least, despite that Jeremiah's horse stood a good foot taller at the shoulder than the exotic hippogriff. She turned in the saddle and let the reins fall to his neck, often considered a risky move with an untrained animal, but the hippogriff stood stock still while she tied her pack tightly the back of the saddle. Pack and strapped down, ready to go, they set off from the High City towards the wilderness. She was not looking forward the first leg of the journey, considering their first planned stop was in the thick and putrid swamp of the region, a place that harbored goblins, trolls and the undead in its murk.

Her only complaint on this trip thus far would have had to been that you could smell the swamp miles before you were actually into it. For an hour and a half before they ever set foot into marshy terrain there was the smell of death and decay wafting from between the ever blackening, gnarling trees that they were winding their animals through. She curled a lip at the first footfall that elicited a squelch form under horse hoof, both animals backtracked the minute they heard the noise and stared down at the ground skeptically. Jeremiah had quite a bit of coaxing to do before his horse would even consider stepping foot into again, and it only got wetter and worse the farther they went. The swamp proper came up to the animal's knees and half the time they were side stepping to get away from plant life beneath the surface that grabbed and tangled around their legs, which impeded movement and making them paranoid and spooked. The other half they were trying desperately to pull their feet from the muck that sufficed for ground where trees were sprouting. There was a myriad of poisonous looking fungi and plant life coming up, which apparently thrived off the murk that was dubbed water. " It's beyond me how anything useful can grow here," she stated, almost with a lace of disgust in her voice. "Some of the most valuable ingredients for healing elixirs and potions grow here. This swamp, despite it's bad smell and nefarious reputation for claiming all sorts of wildlife and adventurers, has very rich soil." Of course it does. Places where things incessantly DIE always have nice rich fertile soil. It figures. " Mm, lovely," was all she managed.

It would have been difficult to tell when it was nightfall, had it not been for the sudden and loud cries of strange animals and insects that started up the moment the sun went down. She all but blurted out "oh thank heavens" when Jeremiah announced that they could stop for the night. They picked the least marshy hill they could find to clamber off their animals and tied them up to a nearby tree that wasn't falling apart due to decay. She set about to collect wood to start a fire, which turned out to be a unique task, considering most of it was driftwood and was half soaked to the core, not good for burning, whilst Jeremiah set up camp. Once she was satisfied with the amount she had collected she made her way back to where her roguish friend was sitting, bored rolling a coin about on the back of his fingers as he waited for her. She handed off the wood to him, her expression bemused as she watched him set them up in a little tepee sort of formation. He sat back on his log and looked to her expectantly. "What?" "Well...make with the flames." She rolled her eyes and sat up, clapping her hands together. Shiirai rubbed her hands together as quickly as she could, causing her palms to spark and crackle loudly, the sound interrupting the dead silence that had permeated the swamp. She worried privately in the back of her mind as to whether it was so smart for her to be doing that, as she had no idea what sorts of swamp denizens would be called forth by the sound.

After a few more seconds of rubbing and snapping and popping and crackling, her hands emitted a bright blaze of yellow lightning, which pulsed and snapped as it threatened to leap from her palms at any moment. She let it fall noisily into the center of the tepee, where it snapped loudly one last time and sent the wood up in a lovely little blaze of flame. "Thank you." He said, as though he had been waiting all day for her to get around to actually starting the fire. She sneered sarcastically at him and sat back against her log, watching as the flames flickered and danced across the wood before her, their dark black trails left in the wakes.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

At some point she dozed off, once she had finally gotten used to the putrid smell that lingered in the swamp. She couldn't remember when she had fallen asleep, but she certainly remembered when she woke up. There was the distant sound of a snapped twig that drifted into her dream, which was quickly shattered there after by her hippogriff's piercing peacock-like scream. She sat bolt upright on the log and scrambled to her feet, her hands held out in front of her like deadly weapons. "Jeremiah," she cried out shrilly as she side-stepped towards her griff, who pulled vainly on his tie and reared on his back legs in a dead panic. At the sound of her scream her companion had come running back, his pale leather breeches covered up to his waist in mud and muck, and his crossbow, one she hadn't even known he had brought, pulled and ready to be fired. He looked determined, although he was paler than death. "We're in trouble aren't we?" She asked him shakily as little electrical sparks driven on by anxiety rolled up the palms of her hands to branch out between her fingers. Jeremiah, not the best known speaker under pressure, only nodded.

"Great," she squeaked as her pale eyes skittered madly around their camp looking for whatever would have caused her griff to scream so in the night. There were splashes and clatters to accompany the very alien sounding screams and shouts enclosing them more and more with each passing second. Eventually they stepped into the light, long thin pointed noses and gnarled bat like ears suddenly thrown into sharp relief by the waning firelight. Many of them were hunched over and carried everything from stick to bows to things that resembled rudimentary pitchforks. "A raiding party?" She asked quietly, her back now pressed up against his as they stared down a circle that had them trapped where they were. "Mm...most likely working for that crazy guy everyone's so terrified these days," Jeremiah confirmed with a nod. Somewhere in the back of the circle was the one that had to start the downhill battle, that one guy who always broke the standoff by screaming or shouting something insulting as they ran forward to meet their doom.

This one met his fate at Shiirai's hand, as a sharp white bolt of electrical energy leapt from her hand and struck him in the chest, the shock enough to knock him back through his brothers and throw his system off track enough to stop his heart and kill him. Things carried on this way for a short while, but violently. At some point the meager defense they put up became too weak to stop the swarm of goblins, a point they realized when one leapt through and pounced Jeremiah to the ground. Shiirai became so involved with trying to bandy the goblin about the head enough that it would release its hold on her friend that she failed to notice that the others were encroaching quickly on them. She latched her hand onto the back of the goblin's head in the end and sent a shock through the back of his skull, and thus rendered the troublesome creature immobile, to say the very least.

She scrambled to help Jeremiah stand, her keen mind already convinced that they were, in fact, doomed._ Oh, what attractive animals, _she thought privately, _they drool AND they smell. Great. Death by tooth decay. _She was nearly resigned to the fact they there were going to be fodder for the smelly, disfigured attackers when there was a sharp crack and a hideous rumbling. It caused the swamp water to leap up and the marshy ground underfoot to groan miserably. It also distracted the goblins, who turned to look over their collectively grey green shoulders at the source of the disturbance, a slender woman in a long white cloak. She had her hood pulled up over her face and a long gnarled stick in her hands, which she had thrust downwards into the murk. Her hands were wrapped up in white silk that went up her arms further and disappeared into the confines of her sleeves. With her stick firmly in the mud she released her hold on the rod, her hands cupped and held out before her like she was offering the goblins something.

This seemed to disturb everyone but Shiirai and Jeremiah, who were simply confused by the woman. Their animals however, began to buck and pull on their ties in an attempt to flee the area, and the goblins began to slowly back away from her, as though she had some contagious disease that she was going to spread simply by being in their proximity. Her hands began to fill with a wavering purple black light that began to get brighter and larger and threatened to simply spill out of her hands more than once. All at once it did simply spill from her hands and it hit the water with a deafening crack. The water shuddered and threw itself outwards, away from the impact, and carried an atrocious squeal with it, like something corrosive on Styrofoam. Everything that it touched shuddered in the same manner and simply fell over, in the case of the goblins, with their eyes wide and a look of abject horror on their faces. It splashed almost calmly against the other sparse outcroppings of land and dispersed the magick upon impact.

The woman looked around her calmly and upon seeing that all of the goblins were dead and the two that were under attack were well, she pulled her stick up from the murk, took her cloak in hand, and wandered up onto the piece of ground they had camp on. Shiirai was breathless, both with thanks and awe at the power the woman had commanded just moments before, and yet all she could manage was, "Who are you?" The woman smiled under her hood and pulled it back to reveal a youthful and distinctively elfin face. "Taelia, and yourselves?" Her hair was jet black and nothing but a myriad of braids and strands with tied in beads. Her outfit was entirely white and hidden beneath that white cloak. She had the same short breeches that Shiirai wore, but hers had a thin strip of silken material that hung down the front and the back. There was a stiff sort of soft leather that ran up her sides from her pants and connected to her top, a form fitting, but comfortable piece of white leather that buckled directly up the center. Said top covered her ribs to her collarbone quite successfully, but left her back completely unguarded, as that was nothing more than ties of white silk that crisscrossed over her broad back.

Shiirai all but stumbled forward and took the woman's hand in her own, "Shiirai, and this is Jeremiah. He doesn't say much." Jeremiah only waved and tried vainly not to stare at the elf's slender face. She had high cheekbones and pale tan skin that only augmented the vivid green gold eyes under the dark hair that framed her face. Her lips parted in an almost smirking smile. "You're from High City, young girl. What did you study?" Shiirai looked stunned that the woman had pegged her so easily and her shock at the entire situation completely blotted out the shape of the large animal that was slowly walking up behind Taelia. Jeremiah's however, did not. He made a noise of surprise and grabbed for his crossbow, which caught Shiirai's attention and turned it towards the creature. It towered over Taelia, at least eight foot high at the shoulder. It had three sets of narrowed, spider like eyes and tusks that stuck out and began to curve up towards its face. The teeth behind these tusks interlocked and only added to the animal's already sinister appearance. It was shaggy all over and had a heavy ruff of hyena spotted fur around its neck and shoulders, which eventually faded into a thin trail that led down to its overly long and whip-like tail. Its feet were the size of dinner platters and armed with nasty looking claws that dug into the ground each time it put a foot down. Taelia flailed a hand at both of them and reached back to lay a hand on the animal's sloping, bull terrier type snout. "No! No, this is my pet! His name is Imam, he won't hurt you."

Jeremiah looked highly like he didn't believe that at all, but dropped his crossbow to his side anyway. "What is that thing!?" Shiirai cried out as she backtracked away from the two of them. "Imam? He's a chimera, or, as most books will label him, a hellbeast. I raised him myself." Taelia turned towards the creature's face and lightly kissed it on the nose, something that made Jeremiah curl his lip slightly. "I ride him." Imam turned from them and padded over near the other animals, something neither of them minded and laid down, resting his heavy head on his two front feet, much like a cat. Shiirai's griff, whom no one had bothered to ask about a name for, wandered over and lay down next to the large creature, moving over so that their shoulders were pressed together, a thing that made Taelia laugh. "What is the name of your pet, Shiirai?" She paused to think here. She had never had much call to name him; she had always called him 'animal' or 'pet' when she was calling for him. "Reynaud." She finally spat out and nodded, as though that made it final. Jeremiah sniggered softly and looked over to her lamely. ''You just made that up didn't you?" Shiirai blushed furiously and glared at him, "I most certainly did not!" This only made Taelia laugh again and she patted the girl's arm lightly. "Regardless, it is a good name. Reynaud it is."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

A particularly loud pop in the smoldering wood awoke Shiirai with a start, as she was convinced that the sound heralding the arrival of more goblins. What she awoke to was the pale mistiness of a swamp sunrise, and a look into the sleeping habits of her companions. Jeremiah was sprawled out on his makeshift bed, hair askew, blankets thrown hither and he was drooling on his pillow. Shiirai stifled a soft snicker at the man and shook her head, how attractive he looked in the morning. She was one to talk however, with the sticks and leaves that had worked themselves into her silky blonde hair. They made her look like some half crazed heathen jungle queen, considering her leather getup. Her fingers sought these out and removed them before she tossed them into the smoldering remains of their fire.

She was more interested in Taelia's sleeping habits however. She had fallen asleep before she saw how the woman managed it, but here she had a hammock of sorts strung up between her Imam's tusks and was asleep therein. His head was far enough from the ground that she hung there peacefully. She would have been content enough to let them sleep a bit later, however at that precise moment a very loud and unpleasant bird decided to scream loudly and startle everyone in the camp awake. Imam shot up from the ground and unceremoniously, although by accident, dumped Taelia onto the ground. She shouted and Jeremiah sat bolt upright, his hands flailed as he searched for his bow and shouted about "monkeys in the backpack". All and all the entire spectacle made Shiirai laugh, which carried on the entire time Taelia scolded a bird she could not see for startling her creature into dropping her.

After a short breakfast of sausages and hard crusted bread, and after having packed as well, they clambered aboard their respective creatures and set off towards a break in the swamp's thick trees. "Anywhere in particular you're headed Taelia?" Jeremiah called back shortly after breaking through the trees and into a bright sunny marsh. "I was on a scouting mission out of Ferionya. I was on my way back to report my findings." "Isn't that a bit off to send a one woman scout mission?" Jeremiah asked suspiciously of her, while Shiirai was all interest. "Scouting for what?" She asked eagerly of their new companion. "The trouble in the far east of the land. There's a mage there trying to do unspeakable things, or so the rumors go. My elders believe there may be truth in these rumors, as raiding parties set out from his lands with his mark upon them and bring terror and darkness with them. They are sending their best to investigate. So far all we have managed to glean from watching him is that he is calling upon dark magicks to gather powers that he should not have and using it to command unnatural armies. This path will take us there, but it will also lead through a few small towns, good for resupplying." she remarked as she pointed further in the direction they traveled in.

Shortly thereafter, the sound of rattling bones drew everyone but Taelia's attention. Jeremiah turned himself in his saddle and raised a brow at the sound and Shiirai mimicked this. The cause of such disturbance came up beside Imam quickly, a half decayed skeleton with an eyepatch. The small amount of hair it did have was scraggly and greyed, the remaining muscle on gleaned white bones turning brown with age and decay. It wore loose silkish fabric that was remarkably clean for it's wearer and within each of it's bony hands it had short but sharp swords. It's remaining eye wandered haphazardly up to Taelia's face and it made a sort of raspy wheezing sound, as a form of communication with her Shiirai figured later. Taelia seemed to understand. "Oh, by the by, this is Permian. He's my companion." Jeremiah shuddered and pulled his horses's reins in an effort to bring them to a quick stop. "Wait wait wait, I'm fine with riding about with a Necromancer, but no one said that she'd have an old victim as a pet!" He snapped shortly, his features pulled into a glare that he turned upon the dark haired elf. "He was not a victim!" She scathed at him even as she reached down to take one of the skeleton's shoulders under her hand, "He was my brother. I've had him with me for the better of three months now!" Jeremiah fell silent and took a pale pink tinge to his cheeks and abruptly turned in his saddle and rode on. The rattling bones turned to look up at Taelia and reached back to pat the hand on it's shoulder before they took continued on after Shiirai's already moving hippogriff.

They continued along the marshy lands for some time in silence, Jeremiah presumably still recovering from his embarrassing accusation, and eventually came to the bank of a slow moving river that once crossed would put them inside the boundaries of the small town they were riding for. They paused here to clamber off their animals and sit down to eat lunch and consider stopping for the day. Jeremiah busied himself with making a cooking fire, and in Shiirai's eyes, did everything he could to avoid the dark haired elf. Permian set about making himself useful by taking up just one of his swords and wandered over to the river's edge, where he put the sharp blade to use catching fish in their sides as they swam past idly. Taelia, who had wandered off to collect wood, brought back a particularly sharp stick that she easily slid through the stabs in the fish and set them across the rocks separating their cooking fire from the grass nearby. In the end if fell on Shiirai to break the silence.

"How did Permian end up as he is now?" She asked timidly, not wanting to offend their companion, as Jeremiah had earlier. Taelia smiled absently as she dug about in her pouch to retrieve a small ebony wood box. "We were about a week out of Ferionya, to investigate the mage we spoke of earlier, when we were attacked by one of his raiding parties. Permian was mauled by a troll they had brought with them. Now the question you're after next, I'm sure, is why did I bring him back? I could not complete that journey all on my own as I am one Necromancer to however many raiding parties he has sent out. So, weighing my options and knowing what Permian would have wanted me to do in the long run, I resurrected his body, rather soon after his passing, which was a benefit, as I managed to salvage his soul enough that he remains my brother, and not a mindless thing that only bears his bones." She slid back the lid of this box as she spoke and extracted, rather carefully, a shiny black beetle, which clicked it's pincers madly and scrambled it's legs to escape her. She set the bug upon her brother's bones and it hurried to munch upon the remaining muscle it could reach. "I've been doing this for some time. The beetle removes the decaying flesh and keeps him from, well, smelling bad and decaying properly." Shiirai flinched but also privately thanked the woman for it, the smell would have been terrible.

After their lunch they loaded their things back up, as they had it on Taelia's good council that the town proper was only a short journey away from where they were now. Indeed, after they crossed the river, the town proper was a short hour journey. It was small and rundown in some places, but the inn was decent and lively, joyful song came from within it and it looked warm. They pulled their animals around to the stable behind it and set them up for a comfortable night. On their way into the inn, at sunset, a group of fishermen came jogging through the town quickly, most of them muttering about not wanting to be caught on the lake at night. While Jeremiah seemed to miss this, neither Shiirai nor Taelia did. They looked to one another and seemed to come to the unspoken agreement to find out what was going on inside.

The inn was indeed warm inside, and happy enough. There were a few drunken men singing a bar song loudly in one corner and the rest were talking loudly and merrily. Jeremiah negotiated them a room while Taelia and Shiirai managed to shoo off a few curious drunkards from pestering and poking Permian, who did not seem to notice them.

"I would send a man out to gather your belongin's, but we've been havin' troubles of late," the landlord mentioned darkly. "What sort of troubles?" both Shiirai and Taelia inquired of him almost immediately after the words left his mouth. He looked taken aback by their inquisitiveness, but answered them nonetheless. "We've gotten ourselves landed with a Kelpie. He stays down there in the lake during the day, sleepin' we usually think, but then at night, he gets bold. He comes up here and raids our town, pickin' off those who aren't so smart as to stay inside and lock their doors at night. Just last week, he broke into poor old Halyard's house and pulled him right out the bed!" He shuddered at this point and shook his head sadly. "Was a shame. Anyway, the beast's got a big red hand on it's chest. Markin' of it's master we reckon." This didn't strike anything in Shiirai or Jeremiah, but Taelia nodded darkly. "Of course."

She turned away from the landlord and pulled her companions off to the side. "A big red handprint? Is that the marking of the mage Taelia?" Shiirai probed with interest. Taelia had a steely glint in her pale yellow green eyes and she nodded curtly. "We should kill it then, before we leave." Jeremiah said as coldly as the elfin woman looked. "Yes. I agree on that point, but the difficult thing is, we shall need bait. Live bait." Jeremiah raised a brow and looked oddly at Taelia as she spoke and nearly jumped when he caught on. " Surely you don't mean Shiirai?" Taelia only nodded, but Shiirai looked alarmed. " What! Wait just a minute here! No one said anything to me about being Kelpie bait when I agreed to come on this fool adventure with you Jeremiah!" She cried out unhappily and brandished a finger at him. " That's what makes it an adventure," Taelia said deviously, "You never know what's going to happen."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

"She's been up there for fifteen minutes and there's not even been a ripple in the water." Jeremiah commented, rather loudly, considering that he was having to talk over Shiirai's screaming. Her hands were bound and she was tied up round the middle on a thick rope the innkeeper had lent them which was wrapped loosely around a tree branch that hung well out over the kelpie's lake. Shiirai was twisting and flailing and screaming loudly, enough that her voice had gone hoarse already. She had run the gambit from threats to cries to pleads to just...panicking.

Taelia was sitting nearby with Permian, her head rested on her brother's shoulder. She had a single brow raised and was watching the twisting elf boredly. "Well. I never said this was going to be quick. It may take some time before the Kelpie raises himself up to take a chew at her. I don't know. I've never hunted Kelpie before. But the innkeeper said young and blonde and Shiirai definitely fits that. Although he didn't say anything about loud."

They remained there for the better of two hours, just idly switching positions in the camp as time wore on until finally either the lure of fresh meat or the sheer amount of noise the Shiirai incessantly made drug the kelpie to the surface. Taelia smacked Jeremiah's arm and stood up slowly. Together they crept over to the nearby bushes, whereas Permian sat where he was and looked past the bush idly.

Shiirai had the misfortune to look down as the grey green horse head emerged from the water and snarled up at her, it's black eyes shining like pale lamps in the dark. It's mane was weighed down with kelp and bulrushes that made it look no prettier than it was and it's teeth were not like a horses at all, but sharp and menacing.

This provoked Shiirai to begin shrieking loudly and thrashing in her ties again. She began to curse at her companions in the bushes again, beginning with "You've doomed me to die at the hooves of a demonic horse, you bastards!!" Jeremiah stood upright, catching the kelpie's attention as he shot off a procession of three bolts in its general direction.

One was smacked away and the other two simply didn't penetrate the animal's thick hide. Jeremiah cursed savagely and ran back to gather more bolts. The kelpie caught one of Shiirai's feet in its mouth and jerked savagely, which only caused her to carry on more.

It pulled harshly enough that it snapped the rope and Kelpie, Shiirai and excess rope fell into the lake with a splash. Taelia shouted, as it didn't seem that her lower voice was really screaming. Permian however leapt forward and went charging into the water, the lack of skin and muscle making it easy for his bones to wade through quickly.

Once upon the creature he began to beat upon it with his fist and eventually a large stick floating about. This created a strange fight as the kelpie tried to hold off the skeletons advances and keep it's meal in hand. Shiirai thrashed about and made this fight no easier by any means and did everything but bite the creature.

Taelia scrambled back towards her bag and began throwing vials and potions out of it until she found one that looked right to her. It was a terrible bright fuchsia and smelled remarkably like something that would burn the metal right off Brillo pads. She snatched a bolt from Jeremiah and dipped the end of it into the bottle before handing it back to him.

"Don't let it touch your hand, it'll remove everything down to the bone!" She shouted at him as she ran off into the water with her staff to aid her brother. Jeremiah quickly removed his hand from near where the liquid was searing the wood. He loaded it quickly and aimed carefully at the kelpie's long delicate neck. Shiirai moved her head away just in time to only singe her hair when he fired the bolt.

The kelpie relinquished her and screeched loudly and began to dumbly smack at it's throat with it's hooves. The liquid was some combination of an acid and a poison that rather quickly killed the Kelpie. Taelia dove under the water as her brother brought the creature's corpse up to the bank and retrieved the still struggling Shiirai back above the surface of the water. She was still cursing and struggling and threatening to beat people with objects.

She carried on this way halfway back to the town and had calmed down by the time they came across the people that dwelled there. They had congregated in the street with pitchforks and other farm utensils that could be used as weapons, fearuflly eyeing the path they walked up. There was a collective sigh of relief and some small cheering when they saw the small party come up the hill and not the kelpie that had haunted them for so long now.

The innkeeper and his wife came running forward with a blanket for Shiirai, who was covered in lake muck and the shiny blue black blood of the kelpie. "Don't worry child," the wife was cooing at her, "we'll get you back to the inn and you can get a nice hot bath..." This at least made the elf smile and she leaned lightly into the innmaid, however careful to not cover her in muck.

She was more than happy to sit in her bath for a rather prolonged period of time. The innkeep's wife had brought her a lovely little bottle of frothy pale green bubbles that seemed to never thin or diminsh as long as they had water beneath them. They smelled lightly of juniper, which was pure heaven to her. She had already washed off the muck from her pale skin and her long white blonde hair, but she felt compelled to sit and enjoy the warm water and fragrent bubbles for a short time more.

There was a soft knock at the door and Taelia wandered in. She had stripped out of her usual attire and was in a long, flowy dressing gown. She had a small tin in her hands, which smelled strongly of a combnation of herbs she knew to be good for healing. "You were not seriously hurt were you?" she asked, a rather concerned look coming across her face.

It made her much easier to forgive. "My foot is a bit sore where he bit me..." she mentioned and pulled the offending limb from the water. There were two thin rows of small punctures where his teeth had clamped down around her ankle.

Taelia frowned slightly and set the tin to the side. "Put this on it before you go to bed and wrap it in a bandage. It should feel much better by morning. Good night." Then she excused herself from the bathroom and to bed.


End file.
